Plot Summary of "Flowers for Algernon"

Summary: People can be cruel in their treatment of others different than themselves. This is a key theme of Daniel Keyes's "Flowers for Algernon" in which a mentally challenged adult realizes how poorly people treat him when it gets an operation that improves his intelligence.

People are cruel. In particular many people will ridicule, tease, hurt, and use less fortunate people as objects of their fun and meanness. In this remarkable story "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, the main character, Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged adult, is a victim of this kind of treatment. When they make fun of them he does not realize it. Later, being impressed by Charlie's motivation, Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur decide to use Charlie for an experimental operation that promises to make him smart. When the operation works Charlie discovers how cruel people are: "Now I know what it means when they said, to pull a Charlie Gordon." People think making fun of slow people does not hurt them so it is okay to be mean. This kind of attitude is wrong and people need to stop this teasing. It not only...